Monday, October 25, 2010

Rhode Island gubernatorial candidate to Obama: "Shove it"

In a year when some Democrats are keeping President Obama at arm's length, Rhode Island gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio went a provocative step further Monday, telling Obama to "shove it" after learning from a reporter that he would not be getting an endorsement from the president.

As Obama traveled to Rhode Island for an official stop and a campaign fundraiser, White House officials said Obama would sidestep one local contest - the governor's race - out of respect for Lincoln Chafee, the former Republican senator now running as an independent. Chafee was an early Obama supporter and a fellow opponent of the war in Iraq.

But the news stung Caprio, who had said earlier that he would welcome Obama's backing. He took to the airwaves to denounce the president and to try to turn the development to his advantage, quickly making the contretemps the central political news of the day.

"What I'm saying to President Obama very clearly is, I'll wear as a badge of honor and a badge of courage that he doesn't want to endorse me as a Democrat, because I am a different kind of Democrat," Caprio, the state treasurer, said on WPRO-AM.

While that is a line that could resonate in countless races across the country this year, it was a surprise to hear it in Rhode Island, a deeply Democratic state where Obama remains popular and was expected to have a smooth ride Monday.

Any expectations that Obama will have a smooth ride politically can only come from those partaking of hallucinogenic drugs or those overdosing on kool-aid. There can be no clearer indication of how radically liberal Obama is than this story coming out of Rhode Island where even up there they want to distance themselves (and more) from him.